* Republic of Argentina
Rating: B1/BB
Amount: Eu100m (fungible with Eu300m issue launched 17/11/99)
Maturity: December 7, 2004
Issue price: 101.10
Fixed re-offer price: 99.85
Coupon: 10%
Spread at re-offer: 540bp over the 7.5% November 2004 Bund
Launched: Wednesday December 8
Joint books: Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley
Bookrunner's comment:
There are two unusual things about this deal - that it's come at this time of the year and on an Italian holiday. But we have seen ongoing demand for this issue and as far as we have seen buying is really not slowing down yet for Christmas.
This was a continuation of the retail buying that we have been seeing for the original deal. In this case it involved very little Italian participation but the overall level of demand has been strong and diversified enough that we did not need a sizeable Italian participation to get what was a fairly small reopening done.
Demand was across continental Europe, mainly Germany and Switzerland.
Turkey
* Republic of Turkey
Rating: B1/B/B+
Amount: Eu250m (fungible with Eu500m issue launched 12/11/99)
Maturity: November 30, 2006
Issue/fixed re-offer price: 100.25
Coupon: 9.625%
Spread at re-offer: 468bp over the 6% January 2007 Bund
Launched: Tuesday December 7
Joint books: Chase, Salomon Smith Barney
Bookrunners' comment:
Chase - Turkey has done all the right things at all the right times this year and as such deserves to be recognised as sovereign borrower of the year.
This tap was the result of continued investor demand. There is still a lot of cash around and it is being channelled into Turkish issuance right across the curve on the back of the perception that Turkey is an improving credit and that its deals have good performance potential.
Both this euro tap and the dollar increase that followed it sold out very quickly to an institutional audience and traded up strongly in the aftermarket.
Salomon - Following the launch of the tightly subscribed original issue Turkey has continued to attract strong demand which enabled us to launch this tap. The increase takes the issue up to Eu750m which is a good benchmark size.
When we launched the tap the original issue was trading bid at 100.75 and a spread of 462bp over Bunds.
We were all sold within an hour of putting the deal on the screens. Distribution was to a pan-European audience, comprising 46 accounts from 11 different countries.
The success of the original issue and this increase is that Turkey has attracted such a strong bid from European institutions. Previously Turkey attracted retail demand in Europe but now it access to the European institutional investor base as well.
The tap is now (Thursday pm) trading bid at 100.875 and a spread of 453bp over.
* Republic of Turkey
Rating: B1/B/B+
Amount: $250m global bond (fungible with $500m issue launched 18/06/99)
Maturity: June 15, 2009
Issue/fixed re-offer price: 106.25
Coupon: 12.375%
Spread at re-offer: 518bp over USTs
Launched: Wednesday December 8
Joint books: Chase Manhattan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
Bookrunners' comment:
Chase - Typically we would not have issued this dollar tap quite so soon after the euro increase, but there was a very strong bid propelling Turkish bonds which led us to be confident that both transactions would be successful.
The take-up and secondary market performance of the two issues has borne out that confidence completely.
Distribution was to a broad based institutional audience, comprising 35 different accounts.
MSDW - There is very strong demand for Turkey at the moment as the country's economic fundamentals are very good and a lot of investors see Turkey as the credit story for 2000.
Turkey has astutely taken advantage of that with correctly sized, priced and timed issuance.
In this issue Turkey has not only been a beneficiary of its improving credit story but also the extremely professional way in which the Turkish treasury team has marketed that story to investors.
The original $500m issue six months ago came at 675bp over and we were able to launch this tap at 518bp, without harming the outstanding transaction. Since launch the increase has traded up strongly to be bid at 107 and a spread of 502bp.
As a result B1/B/B+ rated Turkeys 2009 bonds trade almost 100bp inside B1/BB/BB rated Argentina's 11.75% 2009s, which are around 600bp over and more than 200bp tighter than B2/B/B+ rated Brazil's 14.5% 2009s at 725bp over.
Distribution was split roughly 50/50 between the US and Europe with the bonds going overwhelmingly - at least 95% - to institutions.
